Archive for the ‘Cushman’ tag

Though best known as a scooter manufacturer, Cushman’s original business was building four-stroke engines for commercial and industrial applications. When the Great Depression created a need for affordable motorized transportation, Cushman began to build scooters around its Husky engine and a legend was born. Throughout the Second World War, Cushman scooters were used for a variety of military applications, and in the postwar years the 50 Series was marketed as “The Family Scooter,” pitched as an affordable alternative to a second automobile for suburban homeowners. The two-speed transmission identifies this 1947 Cushman scooter for sale on Hemmings.com as a Model 54, and it’s been restored to an impressive standard using reproduction components sourced through Cushman expert Dennis Carpenter Restoration Parts. The scooter carries a solo seat and a single rail “spill bar” designed to protect the bodywork in the event of a tip over, and its engine reportedly has just break-in hours since its restoration. Less intimidating than a motorcycle for new riders and mechanically simpler, Cushman scooters continue to enjoy a loyal following for one primary reason: They’re just plain fun to ride. From the seller’s description:

fully restored and stored inside in a climate controled environment since restoration completed. New Dennis Carpenter body with correct spot welds visible, new upholstery, new tires and new engine rebuil. Only break in time on scooter and engine since restoration completed. Clean North Carolina title.

Bristol, Tennessee’s, Bristol Motor Speedway, the fastest half-mile on the NASCAR circuit, will usher in an automotive event that has no intentions of setting a track record. On August 11-13, the famed high-banked facility will serve as a meeting ground for the AACA’s Southeastern National Fall Meet – hosted by the Appalachian Region – which will highlight the club’s always popular HPOF (Historical Preservation of Original Features) Class; also referred to as the “original” class.

Although the three-day affair begins on Thursday with the opening of registration and a members’ reception, Friday really sets the weekend stage aglow with speedway tours and a downtown cruise-in. Saturday is reserved for the 1986 and older car show, including a swap meet for those on the hunt for parts.

As is typical of AACA events, you must be a member to enter your car in Saturday’s pre-registration show (which is already closed); however, it’s open to all spectators without a fee. In addition, the downtown cruise-in on Friday night is:

Open to the general public and any antique or “special interest” car, truck or motorcycle that creates a feeling of nostalgia, stimulates a memory, or fulfills a fantasy. It will be a perfect opportunity to mix it up with beautiful original and restored antique cars from around the country.

The AACA has already announced some early registrations, including a 1905 Packard and a 1939 American Bantam station wagon. Also in attendance will be vehicles representing De Lorean, Crosley, Triumph, MG, Chalmers, Cushman, Volkswagen and Detroit’s Big Three.

For more information, including a complete schedule of the weekend’s events, click here.

If you have any aspirations of joining a scooter gang, then you need more than just the leather jacket, jack boots and brass knuckles – you need a bad motor scooter, something like this 1961 Cushman Super Eagle with its 8hp engine and Mikuni carburetor. From the seller’s description and the photos, it looks like it’s ready to ride too, which means you’ll be out causing havoc on the streets in no time.

Though we’re apparently into the roof-collapsing snow season even before the first day of winter, those so inclined to ride in pairs with addresses in the sunshine states could do far worse than to end up with this matching set of 1963 Cushman Silver Eagles. Not only are these two-wheeled runabouts in restored and ready-to-go condition, but they also have consecutive serial numbers. While a matching set of scooters may bring to mind visions of all 1,466 pounds of Billy and Benny McCrary riding around on their minibikes, the world’s heaviest twins rode Hondas, having landed a sponsorship to ride the Japanese mini-motorcycles from New York to Los Angeles before they went out on the professional wrestling circuit. Cushman made its last Silver Eagle in 1966, when the McCrary twins were hovering around only 600 pounds each.

Here is an unbelievable find. A pair of 1963 Cushman Silver Eagles with consecutive serial numbers. I was told these bikes have never been separated since they were built. They have been totally restored by a world-renowned Cushman expert. They look and run like brand new machines. Really great “his and hers” mates.

As entertaining a notion that a President of the United States even owned an Amphicar is, President Lyndon B. Johnson was a certified practical joker when it came to automobiles that doubled as boats. What follows is a tale from then Special Assistant to the President Joseph A. Califano, Jr.:

The President, with Vicky McCammon in the seat alongside him and me in the back,was now driving around in a small blue car with the top down. We reached a steep incline at the edge of the lake and the car started rolling rapidly toward the water. The President shouted, ‘The brakes don’t work! The brakes won’t hold! We’re going in! We’re going under!’ The car splashed into the water. I started to get out. Just then the car leveled and I realized we were in a Amphicar. The President laughed. As we putted along the lake then (and throughout the evening), he teased me. ‘Vicky, did you see what Joe did? He didn’t give a damn about his President. He just wanted to save his own skin and get out of the car.’ Then he’d roar.

President Johnson also had a fleet of Lincoln division products, a 1915-type 12 American La France fire truck, a Fiat Jolly Ghia, assorted Cushman golf and utility carts, and more famously – a donkey cart powered by Presidential donkeys Soup and Noodles. You know – for the kids. The website for the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park has more on the fleet.

As a general FYI (or should that be General F.Y.I.?), I like Monday mornings with an Inbox full of random car photos. Larry Patchett, who recently sent us several GPA photos, decided to provide a few additional photos from the same 2004 military vehicle collectors show in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Above, a WWII-era Jeep loaded with about every imaginable accessory. This seems a common practice for military Jeep owners.

Though, as this Navy Jeep shows, not every military Jeep guy loads them down. Kind of ironic that the markings show that this one was stationed on Ford Island.

A Cushman trike from the Army Air Corps. Similar to the Cushman I spotted at the Air Force museum in Dayton last year. Probably designed for the same purpose.

Don’t miss out on the chance to get a deal on this 1960 Sears Allstate at this weekend’s Steve McQueen auction at the Peterson in Los Angeles

Check out this item up for auction at the Bonham’s “Steve McQueen” auction
being held this Saturday, November 11 at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles,
California. (We put the name of the actor in quotes, because the bulk of the
lots up for auction had no connection with the guy whatsoever, so there are
plenty of items up for bid that folks like you and me can afford.) It’s a
1960 Sears Allstate, in nice original condition.
In the 1950s and 1960s, department stores like Sears and Montgomery Ward
sold European and Japanese bikes under their own private lable. Cushman,
Vespa, Lambretta and even Mitsubishi sold bikes and scooters under the
Allstate (Sears) and Riverside (Monkey Ward) banners. The Allstate
motorcycle was actually a Puch, the motorcycle arm of the Austrian
Steyr-Daimler-Puch conglomerate. Allstate motorcycles were innovative little
bikes, powered by “split-single” or “twingle” engines, that used a single
connecting rod to drive two separate pistons. The bikes were also held
together by a unitized, pressed-steel chassis, Ã la the 1960 Triumph
Thunderbird.
Bikes like this change hands for under $500 all day long. The auction estimate on this lot is $500 to $1,000. If you’re in the L.A. area, be sure to stop by with cash in pocket.

(This post originally appeared in the November 9, 2006, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)

I figured, with the AMO Nationals in Dayton, I would stop by the Air Force Museum there to check it out. Admission is free, and I hadn’t been in at least a decade. I left an entire day open for it, but it wasn’t enough – they’d expanded since I last went, and after a couple hours, I decided to just look at the planes rather than read all of the exhibits.

A 1912-1914 Kirkham water-cooled four-cylinder engine built by Charles B. Kirkham of Savona, New York. Charles Kirkham did build cars starting in 1903, but just to showcase his latest engine innovations and not for production purposes. His engines also made their ways into many early airplanes. He apparently went broke in late 1913 and his assets were sold off in March 1914.

Circa 1910 50hp Roberts Model 4-X water-cooled four-cylinder built by the Roberts Motor Company of Sandusky, Ohio. According to the exhibit, “Roberts used secret alloys it called ‘Aerolite’ and ‘Magnalium’ to enhance performance and reduce weight.” This particular engine weighs 170 pounds, cost $1,500 new and was used in Benoist and Bleriot planes. Roberts also built engines for marine and automotive applications, starting in 1905, and even built a six-cylinder automobile in 1915.

Wright water-cooled 6-60 (six cylinders, 60hp). The display didn’t give a date, but mentioned that this engine would have powered a Wright Model C or Model D airplane. While the Wright brothers never seemed to enter into automobile production, they built the engines that powered their earliest planes. A Wright automobile did emerge out of Dayton in 1904, but built by a Fred and Ralph Wright using a Herschell-Spillman six-cylinder engine.

Liberty 12-B 443hp turbosupercharged V-12, one of 20,478 such engines that the auto industry built during World War I. The description kept using the term “turbosupercharger,” but it seemed to me it simply described a geared turbocharger. The display didn’t mention which manufacturer built this one, but an inverted Liberty V-12 nearby came from Lincoln Motor Company.

Packard V-1650 Merlin 1,695hp 1,649-cu.in. two-stage supercharged V-12. Powered the P-51 Mustangs as well as the P-40Fs and the British Spitfire, Mosquito and lancaster planes. Based on the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, but Packard introduced it in Detroit on August 2, 1941, and built more than 16,000 of them during the war.

The museum also had a few vehicles on display, including a Model T dressed as a World War I ambulance (actually a mid-1920s Model T, according to the exhibit):

a Tactical Air Control Party radio Jeep:

a 1943 Cushman Model 39 three-wheeler, for moving equipment and supplies on flightlines:

a Trabant 601 S Delux used in a scene from the Berlin Wall:

and a Cadillac Gage V-100XM 706E2 Commando armored personnel carrier, which has a Chrysler 361-cu.in. gasoline V-8 engine, a five-speed manual transmission, four-wheel drive and 62 mph top speed; used in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era: